Spaetzle, Sauerkraut and Sausage Casserole

16

1

Recipe by: Experimenter

"This wonderful dish combines all things Oktoberfest! It has spaetzle and sausage, and the sauerkraut is flavored with bacon, brown sugar, apples, and sauteed onions. Yum! This dish reheats well the next day and is very filling!"

Directions

Whisk together the flour and salt in a bowl. Mix the eggs and water, and pour into the flour mixture. Stir to form a dough.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Place the spaetzle dough into the oiled colander, and set the colander over the pot of water. Use a flexible spatula to push the dough into the boiling water through the holes in the colander. Stir the spaetzle as they boil. When they have floated to the top, they are done (about 5 minutes). Scoop the spaetzle out of the boiling water, and place into an ungreased 9x9-inch baking dish.

Place the bacon in a skillet over medium heat, and cook, stirring often, until the bacon is crisp, about 8 minutes. Remove bacon, leaving drippings in pan, and set aside. Cook the onion in the same pan as the bacon until browned, about 10 minutes.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat until foamy, and stir in the apple and brown sugar. Cook and stir until the apple is soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer the cooked bacon, onions, and sauerkraut into the skillet, and cook, stirring often, until the flavors have blended, about 5 minutes. Pour the sauerkraut mixture into the 9x9-inch baking dish on top of the spaetzle.

Place the kielbasa pieces into a microwave-safe dish, and cook on full power in a microwave oven until the sausage is hot and has lost its pink color, 2 or 3 minutes. Transfer the sausage to the baking dish.

Reviews 16

17 Ratings

Jen

9/26/2011

Was completely delicious. I wasn't totally sure about the apple, but oh yes. I didn't make my own spaetzle but rather used some store bought, and mine ended up a little dry, but that very well might have been my fault as the ratios might have been off. So next time I would probably reserve some of the pasta cooking liquid. But totally delicious! I am thinking of including this as a side on Thanksgiving :)
Served with wheat beer and hard pretzels with mustard, ah-mazing!

RitaW

10/20/2011

I was very leary about this dish. I picked it on a whim, and the whole time cooking it doubted it. However.... I was totally wrong and it was a complete hit!!! I used the Cost Plus World Market Spaetzle to save on time, and maybe used too much cause felt it needed more sauce, but something for me to play with. This was delicious all the way through and my boyfriends family and I LOVED IT!! Will definitely making it again! Oh, didn't have a gala apple so use one that looked similar to it (sorry I can't remember the name of it) but it worked just as good! And one more note, I hate sauerkraut, but in this dish... i could eat it all day!